Georg Peurbach was born in the town of Peurbach, which makes his formal title Georg of Peurbach, in Austria. Little information has been found on Peurbach’s early life and the first available record is his graduation from the University of Vienna in 1446 with a bachelor’s degree. Peurbach received an education mainly in humanities and his knowledge of astronomy was acquired independently through access to the books and instruments of the deceased astronomer John of Gmunden who had taught at the university.
Peurbach quickly became a fairly well recognized astronomer despite the fact that he had not yet published any material as he travelled through Europe through the years 1448 to 1453. Peurbach delivered numerous lectures in major European cities and was offered a position to teach at both the university in Padua and at the university in Bologna. Despite these generous offers Peurbach’s ambition motivated him to strive for more and he wanted to make serious scientific accomplishments rather than limiting himself solely to teaching. Peurbach wanted to discover the exact positions of the Sun, the Moon and the planets in order to further develop astrology and use scientifically grounded charts to prove events in one’s future. Astrology and astronomy worked harmoniously together in the fifteenth century despite today’s distinct division between the two studies.
Peurbach’s major opportunity came in 1454 when King Ladislas V of Hungary and of Bohemia, who was merely fourteen years old at the time, appointed him court astrologer. Peurbach was also able to teach at the University of Vienna while serving as court astrologer, but he taught humanities rather than astronomy. As a truly Renaissance man, Peurbach’s diverse academic background led him to write Latin poems written under a pseudonym When King Ladislas died in 1457 from leukemia after fleeing court to avoid political issues Peurbach was offered an even more attractive offer to become the court astrologer to the famous Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. Frederick III had a reputation for being a generous patron of the arts and sciences and specifically in the field of astronomy.
Regiomontanus, a student at the University of Vienna , collaborated with Peurbach starting in 1453 and the pair published numerous highly successful works for eight years. Their first work was titled Theoricae Novae Planetarum, which is translated as New Theories of The Planets, in 1454. The book detailed Peurbach’s theory on Ptolemy’s idea of planets’ epicycles in which he asserted that the planets motions are controlled by the Sun and are in the forms of solid and spheres. Peurbach and Regiomontanus made observations on various eclipses and by measuring the durations of the eclipses they discovered that midpoint was eight minutes earlier than predicted by the Alphonsine Tables and translated these findings into an impressive set of calculation tables as well as measuring the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23:28°.They both also made observations on the phenomenon later called Haley’s comet and created more detailed data tables. Later Peurbach and Regiomontanus were working on a translation of the Almagest into Greek from the Arabic translation by Gerard of Cremonas upon request by the Greek scholar Bessarion. However, Peurbach died at the age of thirty eight after only completing six books and on his deathbed he made Regiomontanus promise to finish the translation. Regiomontanus followed through with his promise and the translation was published in 1463 and was dedicated to Bessarion. Since Peurbach died at a relatively young age the question of what other discoveries he was capable of making is often posed.
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